Hatred and Forgiveness

09-13-2020Weekly ReflectionAdam Cross

Taken from Life Teen Website

On February 28th, 1944 Nazi soldiers broke into the house of Corrie ten Boom and arrested her with her entire family for hid-ing Jews in their family home. The Nazis sent Corrie and her sister to Ravensbrück concentration camp where Corrie’s sister died. Corrie was released from the camp and made it a mission to travel the world speaking on God’s mercy and forgiveness in the face of hatred. One day after giving a talk, a man walked up to Corrie. She recognized him as one of the Nazi soldiers at Ravensbrück concentration camp. This man had treated Corrie as less than human. This man had let her sister die. This same man walked up to Corrie, looked her in the eyes and said… Will you forgive me?
Corrie was silent. Standing there she thought forgiveness is not an emotion… forgiveness is an act of the will, but she could not forgive him. He let her sister die. He had done such evil things! At that moment she prayed, “Jesus, help me!… I can lift my hand. I can do that much.” She lifted her hand and shook his. She said to this former Nazi soldier, “I forgive you, brother!… With all my heart!”

“Hatred is like drinking a poison and then waiting for the other person to die.”

What Corrie chose to forgive seems unforgivable. The reality is we live in a broken world. There are people in our lives that have hurt us, maybe are continuing to hurt us in some way. There are people who have betrayed us, embarrassed us, treated us so poorly. How can we possibly forgive, in the face of such anger? How can we find peace in the middle of such hurt?

Like Corrie, we need God’s help to forgive. Christ longs to help us carry the burdens of pain and suffering as He suffered on the cross. Corrie knew that holding on to anger was a recipe for hatred. She knew that this hate was harmful to herself, to her relationship with God. She knew and witnessed that when people hold onto hate, they die spiritually.

Not a Waste

Contrary to cliches, forgiving does not mean forgetting. Christ does not want you to just forget about hurt, abuse, injustice and return those same unhealthy situations or relationships. Forgiving doesn’t mean pretending that nothing happened. Quite the opposite, forgiveness means accepting and learning from what has happened. It means giving Christ permission to come into the hurt and anger, to use this suffering for good to happen. God doesn’t cause bad things to happen, but He does make beautiful things come out of suffering. Our hurt and anger don’t go to waste when we forgive. In fact, when we invite God into this cross our hurt, anger, and sadness are even transformed to help us become the people God calls us to be.

Emotions Do Matter

As humans we are emotional. God gave us emotions as signals to point us to what is important to us. God calls us to look at and understand our hurt and anger. Jesus wept, he got angry, He was emotional. Jesus shows us that our emotions are important and a part of our humanity. One of the first steps to forgiveness is simply recognizing our emotions and letting God into them. Naming how we are feeling means that we are not a slave to our feelings. Accepting our emotions and realizing that God gives us the ability to work within them gives us options to begin healing.